The moon rose blood-red over Mystic Falls, casting crimson shadows across the ritual site. Vali had chosen the old cemetery - where it all began, where the Mikaelsons first transformed, where nature's balance first cracked.
Four circles of power marked the cardinal points, each containing a doppelganger. Elena to the north, Katherine to the east, Alexander to the south, Tom Avery- compelled - to the west. The ground beneath them pulsed with ancient symbols written in blood that seemed to move of its own accord.
"Beautiful," Tatia observed from her position beside Vali, "but incomplete." Her smile was sharp as she turned to the gathered witnesses. "We're missing some rather important pieces, aren't we, my love?"
"Indeed," Vali's voice was almost gentle as his gaze fell on Bonnie, Tyler, and Caroline. "A Bennett witch, a werewolf, and a vampire. Did you think you were merely here to watch?"
The shock on their faces made Katherine laugh - that terrible, knowing laugh. "Oh, did you forget? Were you all so focused on protecting precious Elena that you forgot the ritual's other requirements?"
Her smile was cruel with understanding. "Did you think you were exceptions? That he wouldn't need you too?"
The color drained from Caroline's face as understanding dawned. "But... but the potion. There wasn't enough. We didn't..."
"Take it?" Katherine's laugh was sharp with hysteria. "Because you were too busy trying to save Elena? Too caught up in your little resistance to remember your own parts in his design?"
"No," Bonnie stepped back, her magic rising instinctively. "You can't-"
"Can't?" Vali's voice was almost kind. "My dear Miss Bennett, everything that has happened - every choice, every moment of defiance - has led to exactly this. Your grandmother's death, your awakening to power... did you think those were accidents?"
Tyler snarled, his eyes flashing gold. "We won't let you-"
"Let?" Tatia's smile was beautiful and terrible. "You still think in terms of permission? Of choice?" She gestured to the circles, where the doppelgangers waited.
"Look how perfectly you've arranged yourselves. The loyal witch, the protective vampire, the defiant wolf - each playing your parts exactly as designed."
"You had your chance at the potion," Katherine added, her voice dreamy with understanding. "But you were too focused on saving others to save yourselves. How perfectly tragic."
"Wait," Stefan spoke out as he stepped forward, his voice steady despite his fear.
"Do you have anything of importance to contribute Mr. Salvatore?" Vali questioned.
Stefan took a deep breath, steeling himself, as he gained a determinded look upon his face. "Make a deal with me."
Vali paused, something like amusement flickering in his eyes. "And why would I do that?"
"Because I've been thinking about what you said earlier," Stefan replied, his mind racing through the implications.
"About already having permission to enter our home. About the way you looked at me when you said it." He took a deep breath. "It was me, wasn't it? I invited you in. But I don't remember it, which means..."
"Which means?" Vali's smile showed too many teeth.
"You've compelled me before. We've met before, and you made me forget." Stefan's voice grew stronger with certainty. "The question is - when? And why make me forget if everything goes according to your plans anyway?"
Katherine's laugh cut through the tension. "Oh, he's cleverer than I gave him credit for. Finally asking the right questions..."
At Vali's silence towards his question, Stefan hesitated, but continued with quiet determination, "I don't know what I was to you, what made you ensure you had access to our home. But if it meant anything at all..."
"Ah," Vali's smile held something almost like nostalgia. "You know, I did enjoy our time together back then. The ripper of Monterey - now that was a Stefan worth knowing."
His black eyes gleamed with memories. "That Stefan understood what it meant to turn destruction into art. To make death beautiful."
"But that's not you anymore, is it?" Vali continued, his voice carrying something like disappointment. "This version of you, with all your restraint, your nobility... you're just a shadow of what you were. What you could be."
"I was a monster then," Stefan countered, though something in his voice wavered.
"Yes," Vali's smile was almost gentle. "You were honest. Pure. Every kill a masterpiece, every death a celebration of what you truly are." He moved closer, his presence making the air itself feel heavy.
"The Stefan I knew didn't hide from his nature - he embraced it, refined it, turned it into something magnificent."
"But now?" Vali gestured dismissively. "Now you pretend. Play at being the noble brother, the good vampire. As if denying your true nature somehow makes you better." His eyes held Stefan's.
"So no, your deal means nothing to me. Because you're not the Stefan who earned that consideration."
The mark pulsed, and suddenly Bonnie, Caroline, and Tyler found themselves pulled into position - three new circles forming a triangle around the doppelgangers.
"Now," Vali's voice carried finality, "shall we begin? The moon reaches its apex, and we have a ritual to complete."
"Wait!" Stefan vanished in a blur of vampire speed, returning moments later with a young woman, clearly compelled by her vacant expression. "What if... what if you could have that Stefan back?"
Vali's eyebrow raised slightly, genuine interest flickering in his eyes. "Go on."
"If I become that monster again - the ripper, the monster you knew - would you make a deal then? Ensure they come back after the ritual? Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler... Everyone. Would you consider a trade? My soul - the ripper's soul - for all of theirs?"
"The ripper was magnificent," Vali acknowledged, "but worth seven powerful souls? I think not."
"But I'm not just the ripper," Stefan countered, desperation lending him courage. "I'm a doppelganger who's awakened Silas's abilities. His power runs through my blood." His voice steadied. "I'm offering complete servitude. The ripper, unleashed and loyal only to you."
"Stefan, no!" Elena's voice cracked with horror. "You can't-"
"I'm sorry, Elena," Stefan's voice was soft but determined. "I can't risk your souls on a chance. Not when I can make sure."
Vali studied Stefan for a long moment, his eyes unreadable. "Show me," he finally said. "Show me your sincerity, and I'll... consider your offer."
Stefan didn't hesitate. His fangs sank into the woman's throat, and this time, there was no restraint, no nobility. Just pure, perfect savagery.
Blood ran down Stefan's chin as he drained the woman, his movements becoming more savage, more artistic with each passing moment. This wasn't feeding - it was performance, a display of what he could become.
"Better," Vali observed, genuine appreciation in his voice. "But one kill doesn't make a ripper. One moment of savagery doesn't prove-"
Stefan dropped the woman's corpse and vanished again. Seconds later, he returned with two more compelled victims. "Then let me prove it," he said, his eyes already darkening with bloodlust. "Let me show you exactly what I can be."
Katherine laughed softly from her circle. "Oh, now this is the Stefan I remember. The one who made screams into music."
"Stefan, please," Elena begged, but her voice faltered as she watched him tear into the second victim's throat.
"Interesting," Vali mused as Stefan moved to his third victim. "You'd really damn yourself to save them? Become the very monster you've spent decades running from?"
"For her," Stefan said between victims, "I'd become anything. Even this." His eyes met Elena's, carrying both apology and determination. "I spent so long trying to be worthy of you by being good. But maybe... maybe being a monster for you is worth more."
The third victim fell, and Stefan stood straighter, the ripper fully awakened in his eyes. Blood covered his shirt, his hands, his face - but there was an elegance to it now, a terrible artistry that made everyone save the truly mighty shiver with fear.
"Now that," Vali's voice carried genuine pleasure, "is the Stefan I remember. The Stefan that I admired." He moved closer, the mark pulsing with interest.
"But are you sure? Once this deal is made, there's no going back. No more pretending at nobility, no more playing the good brother."
"For Elena," Stefan replied, his voice steady despite the blood on his lips. "For all of them. I'll be your perfect monster, your loyal ripper, my King." Stefan said, dropping to one knee, blood still dripping from his chin.
The gesture carried no hesitation, no reservation - just pure submission from the monster he'd tried so long to cage. "Just promise they'll return. Promise their souls will be their own."
The mark pulsed with approval as Vali studied his kneeling form. "Now that," he said softly, "is what I've been waiting to see. The moment you finally stopped pretending to be something you're not."
"Stefan, please," Elena's voice cracked with desperation. "You don't have to do this. We can find another way-"
"There is no other way," Katherine cut in, her voice dreamy with understanding. "He's choosing the beautiful truth over the noble lie. Finally embracing what he really is."
"Very well," Vali's voice carried the weight of ancient power. "Six souls in exchange for your own my ripper." His eyes gleamed. "Now rise, you have a ritual to witness."
"Six souls?" Questioned Stefan, head still lowered, fearing that if he is disrespectful about his question, all will have been for naught.
"Six souls," Vali confirmed, his hand moving possessively toward Katherine's circle. "Katerina is already mine. Has been for centuries, whether she was running or not."
Stefan looked up for a moment, his eyes finding Katherine. He saw it then - the reverent way she leaned toward Vali even from within her circle, the peaceful acceptance on her face. This wasn't imprisonment for her. It was coming home.
"Six souls then," Stefan nodded, "For my eternal service."
"Such a noble monster," Tatia observed with amusement. "Trading his soul for theirs. Though I wonder..." her smile sharpened, "if he truly understands what eternal service to you means, my love?"
"The moon has reached its apex," Vali announced, his voice carrying power that made the world itself shiver. "Let us begin what was set in motion a millennium ago."
The mark blazed crimson, and the circles containing the sacrifices began to pulse with answering light. Katherine's scar burned brighter than ever, her expression one of ecstatic anticipation.
"Wait," Elena tried one last time. "Stefan-"
"It's done, Elena," Stefan replied softly, still kneeling in his victims' blood. "The deal is made. Let it be."
Vali moved with ceremonial grace, approaching each circle. The mark pulsed with ancient hunger as he began.
Tom Avery first, mercifully unaware in his compelled state. Then Alexander, his doppelganger's blood carrying echoes of his own power. Caroline's vampire essence sang as he drained her, while Tyler's wolf blood burned with primal force. Bonnie's magic-infused blood crackled with power as he took her life.
Katherine offered her throat willingly, ecstasy on her face as her King claimed her blood. "Thank you," she whispered as darkness took her.
Finally, he stood before Elena. "You know," he said almost gently, "I should thank you. Your love inspired such beautiful sacrifice." He gestured to Stefan's kneeling form. "The return of my perfect ripper."
Elena looked past Vali to Stefan - blood-covered, broken, yet somehow hopeful as he knelt in his victims' blood. Tears gleamed in her eyes as she turned back to Vali, her voice steady despite her fear:
"Go to hell."
Elena's blood was the last piece. As her body fell, Vali drew the First Blade, its ancient power humming in harmony with the mark. The blade seemed to drink in the moonlight, its edge promising death even to that which could not die.
Without hesitation, he drove it toward his own heart - the final sacrifice needed to complete what was begun a millennium ago. The blade met flesh, and crimson light exploded from the mark.
But before it could sink to its fatal depth, Elijah appeared like a shadow given form, his hands wrapping around Vali's own on the blade's hilt.
"For our family, Vali" Elijah's voice carried the weight of centuries, of every sibling he believed lost to Vali's madness. "For Rebekah, for Kol, for Niklaus - for every soul you've stolen from us."
Mikael's voice rose in the darkness, calling to their hidden witches. Dozens emerged from the shadows, their power already weaving the spell that would bind the King of Vampires forever.
But Vali's eyes - black as the spaces between stars - found Elijah's. His voice, when it came, wasn't human anymore.
"Remember."
One word. Just one. But it shattered the compulsion that had held Elijah for a near on a century.
Memories crashed through him like a tidal wave.
His hands still gripped Vali's around the blade, still pushed it deeper, but his eyes... his eyes held dawning horror as understanding replaced false memory.
With a roar that shook the cemetery, Elijah turned from his brother's falling form. He moved like death itself through the gathered witches, each kill more savage than the last. Their blood painted the moonlit air as their binding spell died with their screams.
Mikael could only watch as his son - the one he thought most loyal to their cause - tore their carefully laid plan to pieces, along with every witch who'd helped construct it.
The witches' screams echoed through the cemetery as Elijah's fury unleashed itself. Each death was precise, elegant - the noble brother's control turned to perfect violence.
"Elijah!" Mikael's voice cracked with desperation. "What are you doing? The spell-"
"Was never going to work," Elijah finished, his hand covered in witch blood as he turned to his father. "Just like every other plan we thought we made. Every scheme we believed was ours." His laugh held an edge of hysteria. "A century, Father. A hundred years of thinking we were the ones hunting him."
Behind them, Vali remained on his knees, the First Blade still embedded in his chest, crimson light pulsing from the mark like a heartbeat. The ritual's power built around him, reality itself seeming to bend and twist.
"You don't understand," Mikael started, but Elijah cut him off.
"No, Father. For the first time in a century, I finally do understand." His eyes held terrible knowledge as he looked at the bodies of Elena, Katherine, and the others. "This was never about collecting souls or preserving moments. This was about..."
"This was about creating something new," Elijah breathed, understanding finally dawning. "The curse wasn't just a chain to break - it was power being gathered. A millennium of energy building up, waiting to be shaped."
The cemetery trembled as reality began to crack around Vali's kneeling form. Through the fractures, they caught glimpses of something else - a space, a realm waiting to be born.
"You see it now," Vali's voice carried power that made the air itself shiver, even as blood trickled from his lips. "Why everything had to be exactly this way. The curse wasn't just a burden - I didn't allow it to be - it became a battery, storing power for a thousand years."
The mark blazed brighter, and suddenly they could all see it - his true plan unfolding:
A dimension of his own. Not just a pocket realm or a prison, but an entire world shaped by his will.
"This," Vali's voice carried triumph even as the First Blade sank deeper, "is what the mark was always meant for. Not just to defy death - but to create life. A new world, born from a millennium of gathered power."
"The doppelgangers' blood to break nature's bonds," Vali explained, his voice carrying power despite the blade in his chest. "The witch's power to channel creation, the wolf's primal force to give it form, the vampire's immortal essence to make it eternal."
Through the growing cracks in reality, they could see it forming - a realm of endless night and crimson stars, where shadows moved with purpose and time itself bent to his will.
"And the souls?" Stefan asked from his position, still kneeling in his victims' blood. "The ones you promised would return?"
"Will return here, exactly as they were," Vali confirmed, his voice unwavering despite the blood on his lips. "I am many things, ripper, but I do not break my word. They will live, free and unchanged - though they may visit our new realm if they choose."
The mark pulsed brighter as six distinct lights separated from the ritual's power - Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler, Alexander, and Tom's souls, preserved perfectly, ready to return to life.
"After all," Vali smiled, even as the First Blade sank deeper, "what kind of King would I be if I didn't honor my deals?"
The six souls hung suspended in crimson light, pure and untouched, while the power of a millennium of curse-binding surged around them, shaping itself into something new.
"Watch," Tatia commanded softly, her eyes gleaming. "Watch as they return, exactly as promised, while our kingdom rises."
One by one, the souls descended back to their bodies.
Elena first, gasping awake with all her humanity intact. Then Bonnie, her magic rushing back untainted. Alexander and Caroline's vampire nature restored perfectly, while Tyler's wolf essence returned unchanged. Tom, his doppelganger blood still pure and human.
They rose, disoriented but whole, exactly as they had been - no alterations, no changes, just as Vali had promised Stefan.
Meanwhile, the mark's power continued to build, reality cracking wider around them as their new dimension took shape.
Katherine's body remained still, her soul already claimed, while her blood joined Vali's in painting the symbols that would bridge their new realm to this one.
The returned souls watched in stunned silence as everything was being torn apart around them.
"Beautiful," Katherine breathed from her position, her body now stirring as Vali's blood renewed her, but her soul marked forever as his. "Our kingdom..."
Elena stumbled to Stefan, who remained kneeling, his victims' blood now dried on his clothes. "Stefan," she whispered, reaching for him, but he pulled back.
"Don't," his voice was rough with emotion. "I made my choice, Elena. I'm his now."
"Indeed you are, my ripper," Vali confirmed, even as the First Blade sank to its final depth and he died. The mark blazed like a newborn sun as the dimension fully manifested - not replacing their world, but existing alongside it, a dark mirror of possibility.
"Welcome," Tatia's voice carried ancient satisfaction, "to the beginning of eternity."
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
So, Vali compelled Elijah, but why?
What did he gain? For what purpose did Elijah and Mikael need to be his enemies?
This world that is being created, how big is it? What purpose will it fill?
Do please comment and tell me your thoughts.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed,
Bye!)